Windage Tray

General Information

A windage tray serves a couple purposes, neither of which are very important (IMHO) for street use:

  1. Acts as a baffle to keep all the oil from sloshing to 1 side of the engine when you go around a corner, thus leaving the oil pump pickup hanging in the air and leaving the engine without oil pressure.
  2. Shield the oil from the wind (hence the term "windage tray") generated by the crank. You basically just want the oil to just sit in the bottom of the motor. If it gets sloshed or blown around and gets into the crank this saps horsepower and churns the oil.
  3. I personally don't think one is really necessary on a Fiero, unless you're seriously racing it. I've had the oppurtunity to ride in my car with someone else driving on both an autocross course and a 2.25 mile roadrace course. I was able to watch the guages in sustained high g cornering both directions, and the oil pressure guage never moved.

    From Doug Chase

    Engines with shallow oil pans (like the stock LT1 [and the Quad-4]) have windage trays, even for street use.

    Not much use for one in a transverse mounted engine...

    From: Curt Martin


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